Mark Emmert Plays Down Claims of Hypocrisy by N.C.A.A.

Image

In his testimony, Mark Emmert called college sports "a social glue that holds a campus together."CreditDavid J. Phillip/Associated Press

By Ben Strauss

June 19, 2014

OAKLAND, Calif. — In the months before he took over as N.C.A.A. president in 2010, Mark Emmert received two important documents. One was a briefing email from his senior aide Wallace Renfro that referred to the “great hypocrisy of college athletics.” Renfro described it as a growing public perception that unpaid athletes were driving a multibillion-dollar industry.

The other document was a strategic plan from Bob Williams, the N.C.A.A.’s vice president of communications. “One of the most damaging criticisms we face is the hypocrisy in which we operate,” it read.

On Thursday in federal court here, both documents were shown to Emmert, who was on the stand to defend the N.C.A.A. in an antitrust case that alleges the organization violated the law by refusing to allow players to profit from their images.

William Isaacson, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, wanted to know what Emmert thought of the word hypocrisy, and if he had any follow-up conversations with senior staff members about it.

“You’re focusing on the word hypocrisy more than necessary,” Emmert said.

Testifying for five hours in a courtroom packed with lawyers, N.C.A.A. officials and members of the news media, Emmert gave an impassioned defense of college sports and its amateur model. He will return to the stand Friday.

He called college sports “a social glue that holds a campus together” and drew a line in the sand about paying players. “To convert college sports to professional sports would be tantamount to converting it to minor league sport,” Emmert said.

Under questioning by Glenn Pomerantz, the N.C.A.A.’s lawyer, Emmert said amateurism was critical to the organization. “People come to watch college sports because it’s college sports with student-athletes,” Emmert said.

In his sometimes testy examination, Isaacson tried to show that the N.C.A.A. itself had long embraced commercialism while forcing players to adhere to a strict amateur code.

Isaacson showed Emmert images of players wearing Nike uniforms, appearing in promotional advertisements for CBS and in front of Gillette decals during postgame news conferences. Restrictions on receiving compensation, Isaacson said, seemed one-sided. Isaacson wondered whether it would violate N.C.A.A. rules if an athlete held up a can of Coke during a TV interview and told fans to buy it.

“Perhaps,” Emmert said.

United States District Judge Claudia Wilken, who is hearing the nonjury trial, then wanted to know why students could not be pitchmen. “Is it exploitation of them, or something you don’t want?” she asked.

“They’re making a living off that activity,” Emmert replied. “They’re not students anymore.”

Isaacson produced an array of N.C.A.A. documents and transcripts that were meant to chip away at the organization’s defense of the amateur model in collegiate sports. For instance, in a speech to the Knight Commission, a group devoted to academic reform of college sports, Renfro said: “To be clear, student-athletes are amateurs. Intercollegiate athletics are not.”

Asked if broadcasters profit from using athletes’ images to promote their televised events, a noticeably bothered Emmert replied, “You’d have to ask someone in the broadcast industry.”

Emmert said he had made efforts to curb commercialization during his N.C.A.A. tenure. The organization no longer licenses video games with EA Sports, although that change came after the antitrust suit was filed.

This case, named after the lead plaintiff and former U.C.L.A. basketball player Ed O’Bannon, was filed two years before Emmert was named head of the N.C.A.A., but his tenure has been dominated by the suit and other challenges to the organization’s foundation. Emmert has become the public face of the N.C.A.A.’s difficulties. His day in court was a legal defense, but it also felt like a defense of what had been several tumultuous years.

Emmert, a former college president at Connecticut, Louisiana State and Washington, noted Thursday that the N.C.A.A. stages 89 championships in 23 sports. Paying players could jeopardize entire athletic departments — even forcing some colleges to abandon their Division I status, he said.

During the early portion of his testimony Emmert’s chair appeared to malfunction, and he almost fell out of his seat. Then, in a slip of the tongue, he said N.C.A.A. rules had always required athletes to be “full-time athletes.” Pomerantz quickly corrected him.

“Full-time students,” Emmert said.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B16 of the New York edition with the headline: N.C.A.A. President Defends Student-Athlete Model During Antitrust Trial. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe